Africa & Middle East Telecom weekly news

May 29th to June 5th 2008

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST:
Zain to merge operations by year-end

ALGERIA:
Algerie Telecom’s ADSL tariff reduction faces criticism
ARTP commences 3G licence process

BAHRAIN:
SIC, MBK Capita to act as Zain Bahrain IPO advisors

CAMEROON:
TRB announces drop in call tariffs

EGYPT:
Orascom Telecom acquires stake in MyScreen
Orascom Telecom offers to buyback 12 million shares

ISRAEL:
Bezeq to reduce market share to launch VoIP offering
Willcom selects Altair for chipset supply

JORDAN:
TRA disconnects unregistered SIM cards

KENYA:
Foreign investors to receive 2 billion Safaricom shares in IPO
Safaricom posts increased profits, revenue amid massive subscriber growth

KUWAIT:
Wataniya enables in-flight calling

LEBANON:
Cellular auction process may commence soon

MALAWI:
Celtel to invest MWK 12 billion for network upgrade

QATAR:
Qtel selects Ascade’s Carrier Cockpit Suite

SOUTH AFRICA:
RCom, MTN finalising merger deal
Saudi Oger extends Cell C bond buy-back offer
Telkom receives offers from Mvelaphanda, Vodafone
Vodacom upgrades to HSUPA service
WBS launches WiMAX broadband network

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
du blocks access to Skype
Etisalat introduces 1 Gbps leased line service

ZAMBIA:
CAZ appeals against licence grant to Vodacom Zambia in the Supreme Court
CellZ-Zamtel to part ways